Silicon India had organized a Mobile App Conference today. I went for it, thanks to a colleague who wanted me to tag along. And it turned out to be pretty nice! Lots of panel discussions and sales ("Elevator") speeches by quite a few start-ups who are in the mobile app space. There were talks related to the entire app eco-system and economy, monetization of apps, segmentation and all the jazz, that is marketing! Quite some time was devoted to understanding the business proposition and revenue models of companies who are trying to carve a business in this whole space. Interesting and refreshing.
There were many exhibitors and start-ups with their products. Almost all catered more to the services sectors rather than the product sector. More opportunities? Sure, but also because product sectors would mean more customized and "enterprise" apps. And before I went I used to always wonder what are the things that can be done at the enterprise level. There are lots of things, as I learnt! Right from automation of processes, to task-based jobs, material, inventory and checklists. Useful in many different industries. There was one company which I felt were very clear in their entire thinking and approach to it. Rossi-tek was their name I think..
My personal best was one with cloud services and seamless UX across any operator connectivity/availability! All your apps and data synchronized across any platform and any network operator. Phew! The guy there explained it really well. I think they were called United Mobile Apps.
I hope the app story does not turn out to be something like what happened in the dot com bubble though. Lots of fabulous ideas and "fantasies" which never took off because of lack of proper knowledge of monetization, marketing and business models. A sustainable model at that, which is another way of saying you need to bet for it for the long term. I wont be surprised if it turns out to be a bubble, just like that of the dot com era. People can dismiss it, saying we have really learnt our lessons and fund houses are more smarter than to believe in jacked up and fantastic growth projections...But I think we might be overestimating their abilities! That's not to dismiss their abilities but just because there is so much happening out there! I don't see how someone can really pick something which will work and skip others by believing something wont. Its a gamble at best, and no one "really" knows where the next big wave is going to come from. And just because, again, there is so much happening out there (in that space) and so many interesting creative ways of doing businesses!!
Ofcourse, the few good ones would always remain, finding their niche and discovering themselves successfully. The world is a stage, and hopefully, they will have "happy" parts to play! The others..well, something else maybe.
As for my part...for now, its the audience :)
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